One of the leading proponents of bipartisan redistricting and a potential candidate for statewide office for the Democrats in 2013, Sen. Chap Petersen, has penned his thoughts regarding the House of Delegates and State Senate redistricting plan that has been sent to the governor.
He said that while we may have had bipartisan redistricting, it certainly was not “non-partisan.”
Namely, Petersen has written about three myths that he feels are being perpetuated by the critics of the Senate plan that are “backwards.”
Myth 1: Gerrymandering only leads to non-competitive districts. Actually, as evidenced by the Senate plan, sometimes you need strange shapes to make districts competitive. For example, Arlington and Alexandria lumped together are very contiguous. They are also 70% Democratic. In western Fairfax, you have precincts which are 60-70% Republican. If you want a competitive seat, you have to mix them up. That immediately causes a disconnect between the two principle goals of redistricting.
Myth 2: Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which illegalizes the “dilution” of minority voters, creates more competitive races. Unfortunately, the opposite has been true. Instead of leading to contested races, it’s been used to “pack” all minority voters into a seat which is Democratic-dominated and not competitive. If anything, that tends to depress turnout. (The highest African-American turnout in the history of Virginia occurred when Barack Obama ran statewide on a contested ballot). In the Senate, we have tried to maintain the number of “minority-majority” districts while creating competitive seats, especially in our Congressional map. It’s not easy.
Myth 3: Incumbents are mainly interested in protecting themselves. Okay, this one is mostly true, although there are some fools (like me) who actually prefer having a competitive “50/50? seat. On balance, the Senate map increases the number of “swing” seats which went for Obama in 2008 and McDonnell in 2009.
The Senate plan which Petersen advocates was passed on purely partisan lines – 22-18.
The rebuttal from Senate Republicans is that the so-called Howell Plan 4:
- * Splits more counties than any previous version. A total of 36 counties are divided in Howell Plan 4. That’s 7 more than the number split under the current map, 10 more than the Watkins-Vogel Plan, 15 more than the Governor’s Commission Plan, and twice the number of the Student Competition winner.
- * Splits more cities than any previous version. A total of 13 cities are divided in Howell Plan 4. That’s 1 more than the number split under the current map, 3 more than the Watkins-Vogel and Student Competition Plans, and 6 more than the Governor’s Commission Plan.
- * Splits two fewer towns than Version 3. A total of 16 towns are now divided in Howell Plan 4. Despite the reduction, that’s still 11 more than the number split under the current map, 14 more than the Watkins-Vogel Plan, 9 more than the Governor’s Commission Plan, and 13 more than the Student Competition winner.
- * In all, [it] splits 65 localities – its highest number to date. That’s 19 more than are split under the current map, 27 more than the Watkins-Vogel Plan, 30 more than the Governor’s Commission Plan, and 34 more than the Student Competition winner.
Governor McDonnell now has the General Assembly approved plans and will be reviewing them.
“I will take action after receiving the final enrolled version..based on a thorough review of the plans consistent with federal and state law, in the time period allotted by the Constitution of Virginia,” the governor said last week.
Other than that, we really have no idea what the governor is going to do.
To see the record of votes visit HB5001 and to see the plan, check out the Division of Legislative Services.
Moving on to today, Democratic state Sen. Mamie Locke has proposed a second minority-majority district by consolidating some of U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott’s into Hampton Roads and expanding U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes’ into Richmond. Read more from the Daily Press’ Shad Plank. Other plans have been offered by Del. Bill Janis (the plan endorsed by current congressmen) and Sen. John Miller (the “student” plan from William and Mary).
If you haven’t had any fun with redistricting yet, check out the “Howell or Rorschach” game.
